Sir - Joe Morton's analogy between the new housing market for starter homes in Donegal and Dublin is not correct, and misses the point made so diplomatically by Joy McCormack.
The blunt fact is that in Donegal a very high proportion of new-home building is for relatively well-heeled residents of the Six Counties, against whom local first-time buyers cannot compete. These new home owners contribute little or nothing to our economy, in which they take no interest whatsoever. Their homes are occupied for perhaps four weeks a year, and for the other 48 weeks they are ghost ghettos.
Were Mr Morton to walk around Portsalon, Rathmullan or Downings on a cold March day, and in a force nine gale, the point would come home firmly - Yours, etc.,
David D. Hurley, Portsalon, Co Donegal.